TV in ‘88--We’ll Have These Fine Moments to Remember

Television can be grand, and 1988 surely had its moments. So many, in fact, that narrowing the list to a prescribed number results in the inevitable omissions that leave openings for second guessers.

But here it is anyway, the year’s “10 Best”:

-- “Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam” : A perspective on the Vietnam experience has never been captured on television more honestly or simply or compellingly than in this HBO special excerpting the letters that American GIs wrote to their families and loved ones.

Read by well-known actors, the words were achingly true, the authors men and women who were merely doing their best. There was something timeless and universal about this remarkable mail call that allowed you to fleetingly enter the minds and intimately glimpse the world of these young people whose cause, more than even war, was survival.

-- “War and Remembrance” : The finale of ABC’s “War and Remembrance” is not due until May, but the November starter course made a stunning impression. Guided by Dan Curtis, the first 18 hours of this serialization of Herman Wouk’s novel were arguably the most significant miniseries in TV history, at once imposing and intimate in its panoramic sweep of seething history.

ABC supposedly lost its corporate shirt on this expensive project, but the creative profits were awesome.

-- “A Dangerous Life” : HBO’s three-part political drama was a rousing success, giving seductive dramatic resonance to the perils and insider plottings of the 1986 Filipino revolution that resulted in Corazon Aquino assuming power from discredited Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. This was television you couldn’t stop watching, six hours when history seemed to come alive.

-- “Tanner: ‘88” : TV’s most insightful peek at the year’s presidential politicking came not from ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, C-SPAN or any other traditional source. It arose from the writing of Garry Trudeau and the directing of Robert Altman, plus the wonderful cast that executed their vision in this amazing HBO series that satirized the campaign with hilarious--and sometimes painful--clarity. “Tanner: ‘88” was more real . . . even than Sam Donaldson. Let’s hear it for “Tanner: ’92.”

--”A Perfect Spy” : Dark, foreboding, complex, intriguing, thoroughly captivating, even obtuse. All these applied to the BBC/PBS “Masterpiece Theatre” version of John le Carre’s partly autobiographical novel that explored the deep, intricate warrens of espionage in irresistible fashion. Ray McAnnally’s performance as the charming, yet destructive father of super spy Magnus Pym may turn out to be the season’s best.

-- Bentsen/Quayle Debate : The closest of calls kept this memorable event from being on the “10 Worst” list. It was less a debate than a test of the vice president-elect’s ability to regurgitate his memorized political lessons without looking like a fool. This is a subjective partisan view, of course, but it appeared that he failed.

On one level, Quayle’s performance against his Democratic counterpart, Lloyd Bentsen, was horrifying. You know, a heartbeat away from the Oval Office, and all that. On another level, however, Quayle was absolutely hilarious. As one observer put it, Quayle had a look on his face like that of a deer frozen by the headlights of an oncoming car.

-- “Gore Vidal’s Lincoln” : This NBC program brazenly traversed the mine fields of docudrama without hesitation, but had the advantage of being labeled in its title as Vidal’s view of history rather than something to be automatically inscribed in stone. Regardless, it was profound and brilliantly mounted, an anguished, tortured strip of Americana with Mary Tyler Moore giving the performance of her career as Mary Lincoln and Sam Waterston magnificent as an admirable, but flawed Abraham Lincoln. But not nearly as flawed as the Emmy nominators who inexplicably struck Waterston from consideration.

-- “Moyers: Joseph Campbell and the Powers of Myth” : The intellect and mesmerizing teaching skills of the late Campbell were on display in this six-part PBS series consisting largely of conversational interviews, with the astute Bill Moyers doing the asking. Although Campbell was a towering figure in the study of mythology, the joy and exhilaration gained from hearing him share a piece of his mind was no myth.

-- The “Business as Usual” and “Accounts Receivable” episodes of ABC’s “thirtysomething” : You might say that “thirtysomething” is a singles bar for feelings and emotions, the place they come to hang out and mingle. On “thirtysomething,” nobody is ever one thing. Characters are not happy without shadings of sadness, or entirely sad either. They are the sums of lifelong influences, confluences, contradictions and intradictions. In other words--and this is hazardous territory for prime time--they are human.

“thirtysomething” was never truer than when Michael (Ken Olin) was confronted by the terminal illness and subsequent death of his father (beautifully played by Steven Hill). The story extended across two episodes, the first (which won an Emmy) written by Marshall Herskovitz and directed by Claudia Weill and Paul Haggis; the second, written by Richard Kramer and directed by Ed Zwick.

By affirming the enduring loose ends of complex relationships, these two hours surely connected with many viewers in a way drama rarely does. Perhaps the greatest lasting measure of a TV series is how long it lingers with you after the final credits. In the case of “thirtysomething,” a very long time.

-- Kirk Gibson as Roy Hobbs : First came Gibson’s intensely dramatic last-gasp home run to win Game 1 of the World Series for the seemingly defeated Dodgers. The NBC pictures and accompanying Dodger euphoria spoke for themselves.

When viewers returned for NBC’s coverage of Game 2, however, they saw something just as stirring in its own way: an exquisitely crafted opening that juxtaposed Gibson hitting his momentous home run and a sequence of Robert Redford hitting a home run in similar circumstances as Roy Hobbs in “The Natural.”

Suggested by Michael Weisman, executive producer of NBC Sports, and produced by David Neal, the Kirk Gibson/Roy Hobbs piece was a brief but truly inspired TV footnote that helped make the 1988 World Series an unforgettable event in baseball history.